Graduates in the public sector

Summary
Introduction
Graduate employers in the public sector
Recruitment issues for local government
Graduate recruitment in the Civil Service
The NHS workforce
Recruitment and retention of health care graduates in the NHS
References

Summary

This article provides a synopsis of graduate recruitment and employment in the public sector, writes Martin Gresty from Graduate Prospects. Among the key points of discussion are:

Public sector organisations feature prominently in graduate employer rankings, and are seen to be popular among students.
In 2006/07, 13,945 applications were received for the Civil Service Fast Stream programme, and 476 of these were recommended for appointment.
Many local authorities report difficulties in attracting sufficient quality candidates to chief executive and senior management roles. Local authorities also appear to be struggling to recruit and retain young people.
NHS employers, higher education institutions and strategic health authorities need to work together to maximise employment opportunities for newly qualified healthcare professionals seeking employment in the NHS.

Introduction

Improving efficiency in the public sector has been a key aspect of public policy debates in recent times. In July 2004, the Gershon Review set out ways to save £20 billion by 2007/08 and proposed a gross reduction of 84,000 posts in the Civil Service and military personnel in administrative and support roles [1]. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 14 March 2007, in addition, showed that, in the fourth quarter of 2006, employment in the public sector had fallen by 22,000, to stand at 5.831 million [2].

This article looks at graduate employment in the public sector. It focuses on the sector’s graduate employers, recruitment issues in local government, and graduate recruitment in the Civil Service and the National Health Service (NHS).

Despite an increased focus on reducing the size of public sector employment, many graduates continue to enter work in the public sector. According to the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) data for 2004/05, 17.5% of the 128,010 UK-domiciled graduates employed in the UK six months after graduation in 2005 went to work in the health and social care sector, 10.9% were employed in education and 7.2% were working in public administration and defence and social security [3]. Although the DLHE survey did not ask whether graduates were working for the private or public sector, it is reasonable to assume that the majority of graduates working in these areas were employed in the public sector.

Graduate employers in the public sector

Public sector organisations feature amongst the most prominent graduate employers. They are, for example, well represented in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for 2006/07. The Civil Service, NHS, BBC made the top ten, while the Army, Teach First, Police, Royal Air Force, Local Government, Royal Navy, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Ministry of Defence, Environment Agency and Government Legal Service were all ranked within the top 100 [4].

The BBC, MI5 and NHS, meanwhile, were the top three most popular graduate employers among 24,507 students surveyed by Trendence for the UK Graduate Recruitment Review 2007 [5]. The Ministry of Defence, Environment Agency and Foreign and Commonwealth Office also featured within the top 20 employers.

Recruitment issues for local government

Although there is a general trend in job reductions in the public sector, some elements of the sector appear to have problems recruiting suitably qualified staff. A paper from the Local Government Employers’ Association, for example, suggests that recruitment is a key challenge for local authorities [6]. According to this paper, local government suffers from skills shortages in areas such as social work, social care, environmental health, planning, and building control.

This document also indicates that local government struggles to recruit quality candidates to chief executive and other senior levels, yet , just 28% of local authorities undertake succession planning and only around 25% have ever participated in the national graduate development programme (NGDP), the local government management training scheme for graduates. Recruiting and retaining younger members of staff is also a challenge, with the result that the local government sector has the oldest workforce of any sector in the UK economy.

Graduate recruitment in the Civil Service

The Civil Service Fast Stream is a graduate entry route for senior Civil Service careers. The programme comprises four separate schemes:

General Fast Stream: includes the Home Civil Service, Diplomatic Service, European Fast Stream, Parliamentary Clerkships, the Science and Engineering Fast Stream and the Department for International Development (DFID) Technical Development Option.
Economist Scheme.
Statistician Scheme.
GCHQ Scheme.

In April 2007, the Cabinet Office published a report summarising key trends of the 2006 graduate recruitment scheme [7]. The study noted that, in 2006-07, a total of 13,945 applications were received and 476 of these were recommended for appointment, representing an overall success rate of 3.4%.

In comparison, in 2005, 12,957 applications were made and 504 of these were recommended for appointment, giving a success rate of 3.9%. Despite the slight fall in the overall success rates, between 2005 and 2006, the proportions of women and ethnic minority candidates being recommended for appointment increased from 43.7% to 50.4%, and from 7.1% to 11.1% respectively. Candidates registering a disability and being recommended for appointment were also up from 6.7% to 7.4%.

Successful applicants came from around 100 UK universities and from various academic backgrounds. The most common degree disciplines amongst those recommended for appointment to the Graduate Fast Stream were humanities and social science.

There was a slight increase in the proportion of applicants from Oxbridge universities being recommended for appointment, rising from 29.8% in 2005 to 31.1% in 2006. Candidates from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge also had the highest overall success rate at 8.5% and 8.7% respectively. The median age on application for the Graduate Fast Stream was 22 years, while the median age of successful candidates was 23 years.

The NHS workforce

Between 1995 and 2005, the number of staff employed by the NHS in England rose from one million to just over 1.3 million [8]. Back in 2000, the Department of Health outlined plans to increase investment in NHS staff, including 7,500 more consultants, 2,000 new GPs, 20,000 more nurses and over 6,500 extra health professionals [9]. Since Q2 2005, however, growth in the NHS workforce has slowed down, and between Q3 and Q4 2006, the NHS workforce actually fell by 11,000 [10, 2]

Training the NHS workforce remains a key issue, however. In May 2007, the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills announced the allocation of £4.3 billion for the training and development of NHS employees. This represents a 3.6% increase over 2006-07 and excludes student grants [11].

A recent report from the NHS Confederation, meanwhile, concluded that the NHS was struggling to recruit managers because these posts were perceived to be pressured and stressful. It recommended that the NHS continue recruiting the best management talent, and noted that the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme offered a promising way in which to achieve this [12].

Recruitment and retention of health care graduates in the NHS

According to a survey of 500 newly qualified nurses carried out by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in the autumn of 2006, almost three-quarters of newly qualified nurses were still searching for a permanent job months after qualifying, highlighting the impact of the financial crisis hitting the NHS, with many employers calling a halt to recruitment in a bid to balance the books [13].

In addition, a survey by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) revealed that 68% of physiotherapists who graduated from qualifying programmes in England in 2006 were still without their first NHS junior physiotherapy job by Christmas, despite high levels of patient demand for physiotherapy services [14].

A document published in April 2007 by the Department of Health, NHS Employers and Social Partnership Forum explored ways of increasing and enhancing employment opportunities for newly qualified healthcare professionals in the NHS [15]. It made various suggestions as to what employers (NHS trusts, foundation trusts, independent, voluntary and social care employers), higher education institutions (HEIs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs) can do to maximise employment opportunities for graduates in health and social care disciplines. Among the key recommendations were:

Employers and SHAs to work together to indicate the expected number of new qualifiers that will need to be employed.
NHS trusts should eliminate obstacles for the employment of new qualifiers.
NHS trusts should review temporary staffing policies, stopping or reducing reliance on agency staff and making more use of newly qualified healthcare professionals.
HEIs should provide destination data on healthcare and social care graduates (including data provided to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on numbers graduating and DLHE data).
Careers advisors should offer support to qualifying healthcare professionals in making and implementing career plans via group work, careers education programmes, online resources and facilities, in addition to being available for short guidance consultations.
Careers services should continue to develop in-depth understanding of mechanisms supporting graduate employment, in addition to systematic processes by which to gather intelligence from healthcare and social care employers.
NHS Careers should provide targeted information to newly qualified professionals.

This report, in addition, argued that a concerted effort was required in order to retain the skills and knowledge of newly qualified healthcare professionals. In ensuring that the NHS retained skills and knowledge, the report called for:

An innovative programme to help newly qualified healthcare professionals maintain their skills and knowledge.
SHAs and HEIs to work together to provide update opportunities for new qualifiers seeking employment and enhance employment opportunities in primary and social care sectors.
Employers to work with trade unions to develop opportunities for work shadowing for newly qualified healthcare professionals.
Employers to work together to offer new qualifiers access to in-service training programmes wherever possible.

References

1 Releasing resources to the front line: Independent review of public sector efficiency, Sir Peter Gershon, July 2004.

2 Public sector employment falls in Q4 in 2006, ONS press release, 14 March 2007.

3 Destination of Leavers from Higher Education 2004/05, Higher Education Statistics Agency.

4 The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers

5 UK Graduate Recruitment Review 2007, Trendence, May 2007.

6 Delivering through people: Big challenges, big questions, Local Government Employers.

7 Civil Service Fast Stream Recruitment 2006, Cabinet Office, March 2007.

8 NHS Staff 1995-2005, Information Centre for Health and Social Care, 24 April 2006.

9 The NHS Plan: A plan for investment, a plan for reform, Department of Health, 1 July 2000.

10 Public sector employment 2006: Seasonally adjusted series and recent trends, Donna Livesey et al, Labour Market Trends, December 2006, ONS.

11 Training for the NHS workforce, DfES press release, 24 May 07.

12 Management in the NHS: The facts, NHS Confederation

13 ‘Majority of new nurses unable to find jobs in the NHS, says RCN’, Royal College of Nursing press release, 19 October 2006.

14 ‘Urgent action needed to secure jobs for newly qualified physios. 7 out of 10 still out of work, says CSP’, CSP press release, 18 December 2006.

15 The Social Partnership Forum Action Plan for maximising employment opportunities for healthcare professionals in a changing NHS, NHS Employers, Social Partnership Forum, Department of Health, April 2007.

Members' login